Massive amounts of storage space available to general consumers have enabled them to retain thousands, if not millions of files and items. For example, photographs taken via a digital camera can be transferred and stored on computing devices, and such computing device can subsequently be employed as a photograph album. Likewise, digital music files can be placed upon the computing device, and enable the computing device to further operate as a juke box.
Typically, items can be tagged based on user preferences, wherein tags are used to organize and identify relevant websites, articles and other data objects—(e.g., web users tagging photos based on familial relations, vacation categories, and the like). Accordingly, such tagging enables users to classify data objects, both for individual use and for collective use (e.g., by other Internet users.)
File organization can be facilitated via folders and sub-folder creation, wherein names and location within a hierarchy of folders are determined according to topic and content that are to be retained therein. Such can be done manually and/or automatically; for instance, a user can manually create a folder, name the folder, and place the folder in a desired location. Thereafter, the user can move data/files to such folder and/or cause newly created data/files to be saved in such folder. Folders can also be created automatically through one or more programs. For example, digital cameras typically store files in folders that are named by date—thus, digital photographs can be stored in a folder that is based on a date that photographs therein were taken. Such approach works efficiently for a small number of files created over a relatively short time frame, as users can remember locations of folders and contents that were stored therein.
Nonetheless, when the number of files and folders increase, complexities can arise, such as for example: remembering where items to be retrieved are located, associated names, and the like. A search for file content or name can be employed, yet this search can be deficient in locating desired data, as a user may not remember the search parameters (e.g., not remembering name of a file, date when such file was created, and the like.) Additional problems can arise wherein, a file can be related to a particular topic, yet a search function cannot be employed due to lack of content or lack of particular wording. For example, a user may wish to locate each digital photograph that includes a certain family member, but the only manner to search for photographs can be through file name and date of creation, which the user does not recall; hence, the photograph cannot be accessed.
Data or files can be associated with additional metadata, hereinafter referred to as tags. For example, a user can tag a photograph with names of individuals who are in such photograph. Thus, upon performing a search for the name of a family member, each file that has been tagged with such name can be readily supplied to the user. Likewise for e-mail exchange and organization, e-mails can contain reference to particular criteria. For example, student emails can contain data content that associates such e-mail with a professor, while not including data relating to a university that employs the professor.
The user can also associate the email with the university by tagging the email with the university name—thus, a subsequent search of emails for the university can retrieve these items. Nonetheless, such manual approach for tagging proves to be unproductive. In general the user must select one or more items, and then manually create a desired tag. Yet, if thousands of items exist, such approach is inefficient and tedious for users.